Sound Clippys : a modular-muse hardware board

We recently made a new hardware interface to control sound and create instruments. It looks like this:

Sound Clippys interface board

The row of holes along the top are designed to make it easy to create digital inputs which act as buttons or switches, on or off. By making an electrical connection between one of the digital input pins and the ground the signal changes from high to low. There is a resistor that connects the pin to 5 volts (high) when it isn’t being connected to ground.

If you’re bored already, there’s a short video clip at the bottom with sounds. You should have that checked.

Here is the first instrument interface I built with it:It connects the digital pins to the strips on the top edge which when pressed down make a connection to the ground pin which runs all the way across the bottom.

The board also has a row of analog inputs for continuous/expressive control as well as two output drivers to trigger solenoids (See the Kitsch-Instrument) or DC motors which can be used to make sound by physically whacking or shaking things in the real world.

I used these in my second instrument of the day which I laser cut in ATLAS’s BTU Lab. It is made out of plywood which I cut to allow the wood to bend enough to make connections to a layer of copper tape which runs underneath on another piece of wood. I made a design using the programming language Processing which I etched on top, to make it artsy or fancy or something. I just thought it was cool…

I’m happy to share the design plans for this if you want to make your own, otherwise standby as the next version is already underway.

Finally a video showing it in action triggering an FM synthesis patch in Pd.